Rights defenders: Surgut and Kaspiysk prove inefficiency of police prevention registration

Inclusion in the police prevention registration list in the category of "extremist" did not prevent natives from Dagestan from committing attacks in Surgut and Kaspiysk. This was noted by rights defenders interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot".

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on August 19, in the centre of Surgut, Arthur Gadjiev, a descendant of immigrants from Dagestan, attacked passers-by with a knife, wounded seven persons and was killed by policemen. On August 28, policemen were attacked at a gas station in Kaspiysk, and a staff member of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) was fatally stabbed.

According to some information, Arthur Gadjiev was on the so-called "police prevention registration list for extremism" in Dagestan.

According to Valery Borschov, a member of the Moscow Helsinki Group, the state faces an objective need to prevent crimes and to conduct operational work; however, the way field investigators work now is unacceptable.

"The police prevention registration expressed in the restriction of rights and freedoms is inadmissible. Repressive measures, in particular, a ban on leaving the republic, not to mention on visiting foreign countries, regular calls to the police, persecution of relatives, are ineffective," believes Valery Borschov.

The rights defender has particularly noted that the native from Dagestan, who was on the police prevention registration list, still committed an attack in Surgut. "The incident once again proves the inefficiency of the police prevention registration in the version it exists today," Valery Borschov emphasized.

According to Tatiana Lokshina, the Russian programme director at the Human Rights Watch (HRW), the very system of police prevention registration list is of vicious nature.

"A large section of the HRW report on Dagestan published back in 2013 covered the police prevention registration. In the above report, we concluded that the system had no legislative basis and contradicted both Russian and international laws. People were continuously interrogated and detained, and it sometimes happened that citizens could not get to work places or to visit their relatives. And when we found out that the vicious programme had been finally closed, we were very happy about that," said Tatiana Lokshina.

However, Tatiana Lokshina has not ruled out that "supporters of the system within the law enforcement agencies will try to use the incident of August 28 to restore the system."

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.